Eagles Close Game on 15-4 Tear to Sweep Season Series with Zebras
| New Brunswick’s Trevon Blakey soars for a putback over Edison’s Al Newcombe in the third quarter. |
EDISON, NJ–Thanks to a change in schedule, GMC Hoops ended up at Edison High School on Thursday night. Â The Eagles were still an accommodating host as they took on GMC White Division rival, New Brunswick, which had recently ended a 33 game losing streak that dated back to the 2012-13 season. Â Edison took advantage of a slow start by New Brunswick, which only had three field goals in the first half. Â The Eagles jumped out to a 20-6 lead with 1:01 to play in the first half after two free throws by sophomore Justin Turner. Â Â
After Maurice Ffrench netted two free throws to end the first half scoring, and trim the deficit to a dozen at the half, New Brunswick rallied in the third by scoring 17 of the first 22 points of the period to tie the game at 25-25 before Juston Payne connected on a three pointer from the right wing to end the third for a 28-25 Edison lead. Â New Brunswick scored 5 of the first 6 points of the fourth including a jumper from the left elbow by Ffrench for a 30-29 lead with about four and a half minutes to play. Â The Eagles and Zebras then had a lead change and a tie before Edison closed the game on a 15-4 tear over the last 3:29 for a hard fought, 46-35 victory.
Payne, who had 7 points in a 12-6 second quarter that gave Edison a double digit lead at the intermission, ended up with a game high 13 points while point guard, Brandon Radd, who netted two first half treys, chipped in with 10 and Turner added 8 including two threes. Â Ffrench ended up with a team high 12 points for New Brunswick including 8 in the second half. Â The star running back at NBHS scored all 12 of his points over the final three periods of the game. Â Trevon Blakey chipped in with 11 points for the Zebras. Â Two of the key differences was foul shooting and three point shooting. Â The Eagles had the edge in both those departments by outscoring New Brunswick by an 18-6 margin at the foul line, and an 18-3 margin in points scored from beyond the arc. Â The Zebras held a 13-5 edge in two point field goals.
Edison appeared to be on its way to another easy win over New Brunswick. Â The Eagles, which defeated the Zebras by the score of 54-38 back in late December at NBHS, jumped out to an 8-2 first quarter lead as Radd and Turner netted threes while Al Newcombe got a basket. Â Anthony Blakey got the only points in the opening period for the Zebras. Â The Eagles then outscored the visitors by a 12-6 margin in the second as Payne scored 7 points including a three while Radd added another trey, and Turner netted two free throws with just over a minute remaining in the half to account for all the second period scoring for EHS. Â Ffrench scored four points including two free throws with 30 seconds left while forward Emmanuel Osei added a basket to account for all the Zebras scoring in the second. Â Edison outscored NB by a 12-0 margin from beyond the arc in the first half while scoring 60 percent of its first half points from long range.
New Brunswick came out of the locker room to start the third period with a stronger sense of urgency. Â The Zebras scored 9 of the first 10 points of the second half including scores by Ffrench, Trevon Blakey, and Samad Davila to close the gap to 21-17 with 4:30 remaining in the third. Â NBHS then scored 8 of the next 13 points to tie the score at 25-25 before Payne fired in a triple from the right wing in the final minute to give the Eagles a 28-25 lead. Â Turner connected on another three earlier in the frame to keep Edison in front at 24-20 after the Zebras closed the gap to one. Â The fourth period began with New Brunswick scoring 5 of the first 6 points to cap a 24-9 surge over a span of 11:45 to take a 30-29 lead on a jumper by Ffrench with under 5 minutes to play. Â Edison went back out in front, 31-30 before the Zebras made one of two free throws to tie the score at 31-31 with 3:29 left.
Edison pulled away from there as Newcombe scored on a layup following a steal and Ish Treadwell, who scored all 3 of his points in the final 3:29 while grabbing 10 rebounds for the game, added a putback for a 36-32 lead. Â The Eagles added two foul shots for a 38-32 edge at the 1:57 mark before New Brunswick got a three pointer from the right side by Blakey to cut the deficit in half at 38-35 with 58.6 seconds remaining. Â The Zebras wouldn’t score the rest of the way though while Edison, which went 8 of 10 at the charity stripe down the stretch including a perfect 4 of 4 by John Zanfordino, closed out the 46-35 victory with the final 8 points. Â With the victory, Edison improved to 4-9 on the year including a 3-5 mark in divisional play while New Brunswick drops to 1-11 overall on the season including a 1-8 mark in the GMC White.